SCC students honored during Bryan Health’s Tribute to Trauma Champions

Posted: Friday, May 08, 2015 at 9:05 AM

Nicholas Boruch and Taylor Graham
are thankful to be alive.

The two Southeast Community College
students endured extensive rehabilitation to get to where they are
today. On April 22, Boruch and Graham were honored during the
Seventh Annual Bryan Trauma Center's Tribute to Trauma Champions.
The event took place at the Embassy Suites Ballroom in downtown
Lincoln.

Boruch survived a forklift accident
in April 2013 that occurred on a farm near Osceola.

Graham survived a motorcycle
accident in August 2013 that occurred in Lincoln.

Boruch, who is from Osceola, is a
Business Administration student on SCC's Lincoln Campus. He was 17
and a senior at Shelby-Rising City High School when his accident
occurred. While working on a farm, Boruch was run over by a
forklift. He was transported to Memorial Hospital in Seward, then
flown to Bryan Trauma Center in Lincoln. He described the
accident.

"I'm riding on the left side of it,
and the next thing you know I was only holding on with one hand,
and my friend that was driving it turned sharply and I lost my grip
and fell off, the rear tires then ran me over," he said.

Boruch suffered collapsed lungs,
injuries to his liver and spleen and a crushed foot.

"I shouldn't be here," Boruch said
during the honor ceremony. "But for some reason, I am. I don't know
why, but it's amazing how they did it."

Boruch has recovered from most of
his extensive injuries. However, he still experiences some pain in
his foot that was broken.

He spent a month in Bryan's
Intensive Care Unit and three weeks at Madonna Rehabilitation
Hospital.

"When I got to Madonna they asked me
what my goal was, and I said I want to go home for graduation,"
Boruch said. "They said well, we'll make it happen."

And he did. Now Boruch is working at
Osceola Implement.

Graham, a Welding Technology student
at SCC, survived a motorcycle accident that happened on Aug. 29,
2013, in Lincoln. He is still in a wheelchair. The accident
severely damaged the 19-year-old's spinal cord, resulting in
paralysis from the chest down. Graham described the accident.

"I came up over a hill, approaching
a turn lane to turn left, and there was a van with no working brake
lights," he said. "I had no other option but to lock up the
brakes."

He skidded for 100 feet and was
thrown from the bike. He cleared a distance of about 50 feet before
crashing head first into the van. The then teenager was rushed to
the Bryan West Trauma Center. His injuries included a lacerated
liver, bruised lung, fractured sternum, and spinal damage that left
him a quadriplegic.

Dr. Reginald Burton, Trauma Center
director, said that when Graham arrived, "it looked like his leg
was torn off. He had a huge laceration on his leg with an open
fracture with a femur fracture sticking out."

Graham also underwent extensive
rehabilitation at Madonna. But he also traded his need for speed
and substance abuse into regaining his independence. Graham is
ninth in the United States Tennis Association's Quad Wheelchair
Open Singles rankings. He posted the following on Madonna's
Facebook page:

"This is not pretty by any means, but it doesn't have to be. God
has truly blessed me with so much return! Never would have thought
I would be able to walk without an assistive device or get around
without my chair."

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For more information contact:
Stu Osterthun
Administrative Director of Public Information and Marketing
402-323-3401
sosterthun@southeast.edu